The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Regional Office for South Asia, (UNODC ROSA) and the UN Women, South Asia signed a Memorandum of Understanding, whereby they committed to strengthen the existing cooperation in dealing with the organized crime of human trafficking in the SouthAsian countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maledives and Sri Lanka.
The Protocol seeks to prevent trafficking in persons, protect victims of trafficking and promote cooperating among State Parties in order to meet these objectives.
Within South Asia, the legal regime is diverse, and the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, 2002, represents a need and political commitment from countries in the SAARC region.
Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka have all taken steps in the right direction to combat human trafficking; however, there is a need to look closely at country specific laws to understand where the gaps lie. It is in the light of this, that a Legal and Policy Review of Repsonses to Human Trafficking has been taken up.
This Report looks at the law and policy, especially in the context of the Protocol, supplementing work already available in different studies.